The present disclosure relates to a record system and more specifically, to methods and systems for recording a configuration record for an asset.
Asset maintenance and/or modification is an ongoing occurrence for assets that have a relatively long in-service lifespan and include a large capital investment, such that maintenance and/or modification is preferable over asset replacement. Assets such as aircraft, maritime vessels, automobiles, and other large investment assemblies routinely undergo maintenance and/or modification at regular intervals to maintain the vehicles and occasionally upgrade the vehicles with new components to improve vehicle performance.
In order to organize the configuration of components of the asset, some organizations obtain attributes of the asset, and then attempt to categorize those attributes after the fact into some sort of organization such as folders in a file cabinet or in 3-ring binders. More particularly, some of the attributes can be used to document configurations, for example wiring and/or hydraulics, of some known legacy assets and to allow for designs of modification kits over life of the asset. Some of the attributes, however, may be only available to only those aware of them, and may be left in a non-digital state which limits and/or prevents sharing the attributes with others in the organization. Moreover, some known attributes do not carry contextual information, such as component identification and/or positions within the asset limiting the effectiveness of the attributes.
Some organizations consult the attributes in developing proposed modification concepts to facilitate component identification and location, and in determining design space that is available for modifications, as well as configuration differences across vehicles. Some current methods, however, can be very time consuming, wrought with interpretation errors, and may not provide widespread access across the program. Organizations managing assets with known configurations may not have a structured method to manage captured general and specific asset aspects such as images, photographs, and X-rays. Moreover, known organizational methods may not include a structured method to efficiently organize attributes electronically as those attributes are collected. Further, some known programs include a regimented photo survey based on a predefined configuration. Deviations from this configuration, however, may have to be handled outside the scope of the organization. The reliance on administrative control, as opposed to an organized linkable architecture structure, however, may present errors in associating aspect information to the attributes resulting in uncertainty of specific configurations for the components.
A program to systematically collect and organize assets in a configuration that can be used by personnel throughout the organization would enhance better utilization of component data and lead to improved collaboration across the program. In addition, the ability to compare aspects of similar assets and different instances of assets, or the same aspects at different points in time would enhance organizational methods.